The kids on the truck on the last day of school. Courtesy, Cris Wodle (teacher)

A very good morning to all of you. I am very happy and lucky to be here today to thank all who have helped and support me to make me what I am today.

I am very grateful to the Upper School Council for awarding me the scholarship again. This scholarship would help me through my university. I can only pray to god that may you all be blessed and successful in whatever you do.

I am now studying in University Technology Mara of Kuching pursuing a 2-year Diploma In Public Administration. After this, I would like to continue a 3-year Degree course in Political Science. I know that this would be very challenging but not impossible. I will do my best to achieve my dream. Moreover, knowing that all of you are supporting, helping and guiding me would motivate me to achieve my goal.

In the past, all the Penan students in SMK Medamit found it difficult to go home during school holidays because of transport problem. We had to depend on the mercy of logging company’s truck. Many times we had to spend the whole frightening night sleeping by the roadside because the company’s transport did not travel to our villages . We only can hope by the next morning, another truck would come our way to get us to Long Sembayang. From there, we had to walk for another 3 hours to reach our village in Long Tegan. Because of this transport problem, many Penan students dropped out from school.

However, after getting help from you all, my friends and I can go home on a chartered truck and come back to school safely and on time. We now also have clean uniforms, school shoes and stationeries. We are very grateful to all of you, esp. Auntie Jacky, Auntie Violette, Auntie Shida and Auntie Asrid and their friends who gave us a lot of help and encouragement. Once again, thank you and May God bless you with good health, happiness and peace.

The Penan Students and Volunteers: Angela, Violette, Cecelia, Shida, Adell and the teachers

The kid didn't do his home work (My teacher, Mrs. Violette Tan in Blue)

In explaining to me about a Social Project that my former high school teacher, Mrs Violette Tan, and her small circle of housewives friends started, Mrs Tan casually uttered out a seemingly harmless statement saying: “We are`feeding the hungry’, in contrast to `enhancing the life’ of others…” Little did she realize, a simple sentence like that discomforted me for months because I belong to the latter category she was referring to.

Fascinated by her cause, I sent a list of questions to Mrs Tan about the Penan Project, with the goal of sharing her story on my blog under the category of Cool People (who says teacher can’t be cool?). Mrs Tan obliged, but had not found the chance to respond since, as she was too busy doing the ‘real work’ for her project.

Instead, she invited me to come along to Limbang last week to join her Social visit, where I could witness the answers by myself. I had all my questions answered in that day, with my teacher explaining every detail right beside me (reminiscing the good old days), as we strolled on a few hours drive across the border.

Business by Remote Control

Wu Chun is a name that requires no introduction in the entertainment industry, he is the Brunei heartthrob who has reached international stardom through his singing and acting careers in Taiwan. His endorsements includes the likes of Coca-Cola, Canon, Osim, Gatsby and a list of fashion and cosmetic items. You can learn all you need to know about him from his website: http://www.chunzone.com. Besides oil and gas, Wu is arguably one of Brunei’s most prominent exports.

Beneath Wu’s reserved demeanor on the television screen, lies a confident gentleman with a sound business acumen and more than a few lessons to share from his hard knock experience in a cut-throat industry, where stars rise as quickly as they fall. Before becoming a star, Wu was a national basketball player, a gym enthusiast and an entrepreneur who ran a chain of multimillion-dollar fitness centres and a hotel in Brunei. The main difference today is his inability to go anywhere in Asia without being recognized.

A commendable note about Wu is his commitment in giving back to the society of Brunei. Wu’s organisation, Fitness Zone recently donated BND 50,000 through the Japanese Embassy in Brunei for the Tsunami Relief fund. He has been spotted in helping to raise money in the Brunei’s HSBC charity run in May, and is a generous donor to charities and schools locally. We talked to Wu, whose management practice is not exactly by remote control from overseas, as most people would imagine. On the contrary, he is every bit in-tune with his business operations as any other business owner.

How do you manage a business of such magnitude, while you are busy pursuing your own very successful music and acting career overseas?

The acting career in Taiwan demands long hours. However, there is also a lot of waiting time in between when the other members of the cast are performing their acts. I use that free time to correspond with my staff in Brunei through my laptop whenever I am not doing anything.

So, while you were in Taiwan, your mind was constantly in Brunei?

Yes, indeed. I am constantly thinking of work, ideas and ways to improve my business.
I am a believer in delegation and empowerment. There is a system of incentive in place in Fitness Zone, where staff are rewarded for their performance. We have sent staff to the US, Australia, Taiwan and Malaysia in the past, when they achieve their targets. I always encourage my staff to learn more about health related issues, nutrition and diet so they can engage in deeper conversation with our clients and inspire them to live a better lifestyle. I come back to Brunei rather frequently when I can, and when I am back I will dedicate a lot of time to catching up on the business. Some of our staff have been with us since day one, and have developed some solid fundamentals about the business.

Derek Sivers was not exactly my hero, although he is the author of one of my ALL-TIME Top 5 favorite business books:

Linchpin Seth Godin

How to Drive Your Competition Crazy Guy Kawasaki

Delivering Happiness Tony Hsieh

Anything you want Derek Sivers

Onwards Howard Schultz

(Money back guarantee from me, if any of the above doesn’t impact you as a person, or change your business for the better.)

I had the rare privilege of meeting Derek at a conference today. Often, when you get to meet people whom you admire, one of two things happen: You either get really disappointed or really inspired.

There’s no in-between.

The good news for me was – I got REALLY inspired! Because:

Listening to him made me feel smarter about myself.

He looked me in the eyes the whole time we spoke, as if I was the only person that mattered.

He was absolutely accommodating with my stupid questions. I knew I should have asked something more sophisticated like the recent Wall Street demonstration event or something about innovation in Silicon Valley. Instead, all I uttered out was “What’s fun about Singapore?” Duh!

Of course he didn’t need to show the graciousness he did today:

He’s a millionaire (he doesn’t need my book money).

He could have had a bad day (it’s tough to be on the road and speak few days in a row).

He’s done his job on stage.

Notice all my ‘judgmental view’ about Derek has everything to do with how he makes me feel, and nothing about what he’s spoken on stage (Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!) or how well his thoughts were on paper.

Shallow as I might have sounded, if you’re really honest with yourself, you’d have asked the same questions in your head.

Perhaps what makes a celebrity a hero have much to do with how they make you feel, when you finally get to meet them (Ladies & Gentlemen, today I shook hand with the guy who gave away USD 22M to charity).

We spoke to Rizan at length, on drawing business lessons from starting an NGO; the importance of giving back to the community and ultimately to mother nature.

How did the Beach Bunch movement get started?

It started when Alan Tan and I were chilling out on his balconyhaving a conversation about Alan’s passion; surfing. One of the things that ticked Alan off was that he often got hit by rubbish when he was surfing at the beach. Being an environmentalist by profession, I understand the deeper damage that litter could cause to the marine and the wild life. We decided there and then to do something about it. A few weeks later, we gathered up some friends for a beach ‘clean up / picnic’. A group of 20 friends turned out, and we sweated ourselves off tirelessly that morning of 15th February 2009. Although it was excruciatingly hard work, the occasion left us feeling good about ourselves, and thinking that we could actually make a difference.

That was how it all started. We went on organizing a few other similar activities, words spread; influential bloggers participated in the beach clean up and posted our efforts on their blogs. Before we knew it, we were attracting a lot more like-minded people to join our cause. Today, we’ve recorded up to 900 volunteers with a total waste collection of 3.9 tonnes from 5 beaches within Brunei Muara district in the span of 2 years. What parallels are there in running an NGO and in managing a business? The skills required are very similar. You need good leadership skills, people skills and organization skills. Above all, you need to have a steadfast believe in your vision.There was no shortage of skeptics and critics when we first started the Beach Bunch. If we had listened to them, we wouldn’t have gone this far. What is commonly not reported were the times when the turn-outs were low, and we still kept our head down, picking up one piece of rubbish at a time, inspite of the numbers.

Any entrepreneur will tell you about the virtue of perseverance for a successful business venture. You need to persevere a lot more being an NGO, because unlike being in business, the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the gold and the diamonds.

We spoke to Nicky Wong, the co-founder of Infindo Technology on the future of mobile phone and social media. The Brunei start-up is in the forefront of the Internet and Mobile phone revolution, sweeping multiple business awards locally and in the region, including the latest LEAP grant from BEDB.

The company currently produces mobile applications sold for the millions on Apple iTunes AppStore, and going head to head against the major leagues in the Silicon Valley for the wallets of the world audiences.

In your own words, what does Infindo do?

We were registered as an iCentre incubatee in the year 2008 and have since emerged as a market leader developing the latest in mobile technologies. Our partners and clients encompass successful internationally renowned medium and large enterprises from telecommunication, finance & banking, entertainment, retail, and the hospitality industry.

With more than 40 employees spread across Brunei and the region, our team strives together to consistently produce cutting edge performance solution, compelling customer service and dedicated technical support.

One of our key success factors is our constant update with the latest technology and our commitment to rigorous research and development (R&D) in order to deliver the bestsuited solutions to clients and the global mobile industry.

Your company was the co-winner of Think Big business plan award from i-Centre last year. Explain to us about your business plan in an elevator’s pitch.

Our business plan is about POLYGON, an application store mobile ecosystem with a quick to-launch white label Appstore turnkey solution cater for any mobile operator, enterprise or government who wish to launch their Appstore.

Interviewing the interviewer

My Facebook exchange with the Oprah of Brunei; Izan Zein

When you speak, Brunei’s young & old listen. A great call of responsibility to ensure the messages you deliver are positive and (politically) correct. On the contrary, it is exactly the kind of forwardness and lack of regard for the rule book that brings you to fame (and trouble). Explain to me this irony.

It is a HUGE responsibility being on the radio yet at the same time one must be able to balance their own personality of who they REALLY are as opposed to a person people idolize or look up to. I believe everyone loves a tyrant however they also love to hear the truth even though (the truth) it hurts. The message needs to be crafted in such a way that people can relate to.

I do it the best way I can and that is by being myself; I don’t TRY hard at all to please anyone and most importantly I am not fake. But this is the feeling I get and I try my best to sustain it and balance it out without crossing the line. Hard to explain yet hopefully you catch my drift! It is like when you give an artist a canvas, he can’t control the way he strokes his final touch or explain it. It is just there. His (the artist’s) creativity and soul take over, when that happens!

Sounds like a very pleasurable job and much like a chore at the same time. Double edged sword, Izan?

Nope not double edged at all! In fact it is more of a challenge. It is how one chooses to) view it. It is a huge responsibility like any job you pursue, there is a call for being judicious. I carefully balance what is on the line with what I intend to put across. As I said I view myself as a voice and not someone who complains all the time, instead I do something about it. Therefore, I am in a position to make a change and therefore I do so the best way I know how. In actual fact, if it was a chore, would I have sounded so happy and relaxed on air? Doubt it!

Why the funky hair do? What do you say to the parents who show you the picture of their kids getting into trouble at school, trying to look just like you?